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Sawamura is a lonely, violent individual who had gone through a very painful childhood. As a child, his stepfather was an alcoholic who regularly physically abused Ryuuhei and his mother, and eventually the child Ryuuhei stabbed his stepfather with a knife in order to protect his mother. Soon afterwards, his mother places him in the care of the state while telling him she is looking for a job, when in reality, he is being abandoned by his mother as well (something that takes Ryuuhei 3 years to realize). His isolation and bitterness is only amplified when he is falsely condemned for killing doves that he had fed. His only friends are his old teacher from middle school and Sendou Takeshi, though he treats neither of them as such.

After his teacher introduces him to Karil, Sawamura becomes a violent boxer with a tendency to foul for no reason other than to hurt his opponents. He eventually fights Ippo for the JBCFeatherweight title. He is the second challenger of Ippo's to develop a counter to the Dempsey Roll, but is the first to succeed in using it without getting hurt by Ippo in return. In the fourth round Sawamura all but has victory in his grasp, but he postpones KOing Ippo and ending the match to instead cause further damage. Ippo then executes his Dempsey Roll counter counter in the following rounds and defeats Sawamura.

After his loss against Ippo, he begins to realize the value of hard work, and sets Ippo as his goal, wanting to "experience the same heights as Makunouchi". Mashiba challenges him to a title match because Sawamura had attacked his sister prior to the Ippo match. After he wins his fight against Mashiba (due to the fact that Mashiba was disqualified), he refuses to accept the belt, and instead rides away on his motorcycle. However, due to the massive head damage he suffered during the fight, he accidentally rides straight into oncoming traffic. His injuries are so bad that he is forced to retire from boxing forever.

After his retirement, Sawamura's sociopathic rants and behavior are shown to have subsided. He sports a series of facial scars, as well as a calmer personality and a keen eye for boxing. He even enjoys a long conversation with Ippo and Sendou during Miyata Ichirou's match against Randy Boy Jr. and seems to have a sense of humor, albeit a sarcastic one. Sawamura also looks to have chosen to become a trainer and holds Ichiro Miyata's father in high regard, calling him a genius second in the fight against Randy Boy Jr.

Sawamura carries a menacing appearance. He is tall, with a lean but toned build and spiky, unkempt dark colored hair. His eyebrows are thin and slanted, with eyes almost always half-closed in a look that can be interpreted as boredom or distaste. His eye color is never elaborated on in the series.

Much like Mashiba Ryou, Sawamura is a dark, malicious boxer with a devastating fighting style and an overwhelming tendency to foul. Unlike Mashiba who fouls in desperation however, Sawamura will often commit illegal moves despite having gained the upper hand. He is shown to be cruel, bloodthirsty, and antagonistic. It is occasionally implied that he may have cannibalistic tendencies, but he changes after being defeated by Makunouchi Ippo whereas his cannibalistic rants cease and he develops a liking for hard work, driven by his want to be on the same level as
Ippo. His cruelty and viciousness continue on however, and is shown again in his match against Mashiba, which turned out to be a match full of fouls and illegality. Post-retirement however, he seems to have mellowed out. Though he remains cold and cynical, his more agressive and vicious behaviour seems to have faded away.

First and foremost Sawamura was a gifted counter-puncher, his sense for counter-punching is even greater than Miyata's. The difference between Sawamura and Miyata's counterpunching is the risk, Sawamura's counter punching is high reward low risk, where as Miyata is in danger of recieving extensive damage if he should miss. Sawamura has fast and heavy jabs which are nicknamed the bullet and his most powerful shot is a Right Straight nicknamed the flash. Because of his rough childhood, Sawamura is rugged and is not above commiting fouls, despite his great strength and sense for boxing.

More of a hinderance than anything else is the fact that Sawamura has a tendency to commit fouls due to some anger problems and his overall sadistic personality. In fact this has cause him his only losses up to the point where he faces Ippo. Also because of his sadistic personality, he will actually not go for a knock out punch until he feels like it which while looks good for points, still means that the opponent has a chance to come back, though up until his fight against Ippo, was never a problem before which ended up causing him his loss.